Another Whirlwind Weekend
April 7, 2025
Is it really a weekend if it’s not jam packed with activities? I honestly don’t think so.
I sometimes wonder what my weekends will be like once our daughter heads off to college. How much will out schedule calm down? And what will we do with the extra time?
I have a lot of ideas of what I would fill it with, and I am sure my wife has her own ideas as well. The benefit we have after being married all these years is that we have a pretty good idea of when to balance what we do, and when to focus on what each other wants to do.
But it will really be different once she goes to college. Since we didn’t really have any overlap between our kids high school years, what will it be like?
Honey Do Items – Done!
Until then, I think it worth mentioning what we were up to this last weekend. Saturday started with some honey do items at home. We installed a curtain rod and curtains in Grandma’s TV room and managed to do so with our any stress.
We also put up this nice print we have had for decades in her room to add a little something extra to the decor. And in the process I managed to tweak my shoulder while manually screwing in the screws for both activities. This was definitely a fun old guy “I can’t believe this made me sore” moment. More on this later…
We are with the Band
Well band parents at least who drove off to John Hersey 2025 Chicagoland Invitational Concert Band Festival. Oswego East did great and sounded amazing.
But our biggest complaint remains the fact that the percussion is always at the back. Combined with our daughter’s height (5.0 ft) we are lucky to even see the top of her head. It was especially annoying this time because she had a percussion solo which we had no idea she was even playing.
Retiring an Old Workhorse & Disappointment
Following the competition we high tailed it out of there over to the Abt Electronics showroom in Glenview, IL. This place is what an electronics showroom should be like.
It’s hard to accurately describe it other than to say it is massive and they have free fresh baked cookies, what isn’t to like? Our reason for visiting – To check out refrigerators and dishwashers.
Our fridge has been a workhorse still kicking twenty years after we bought it. But the shelves have gone to pot and the small side by side freezer has lost its charm.
Our dishwasher (Bosch) on the other hand has always been a disappointment other than it being incredibly quiet. Recently the door gasket has gone out resulting in the heavy door dropping like a rock when you lower it. That coupled with its piss poor drying capability put it firmly on the chopping block.
I am happy to report we found a replacement for both that will be delivered and installed this coming week. The refrigerator has french doors on the top with a water dispenser on the inside, with the freezer below. The dishwasher has a hearty heating element that promised to dry dishes expeditiously. Only time will tell.
National Deep Dish Pizza Day
Saturday was also National Deep Dish Pizza Day so we of course had to honor this cultural celebration. To be honest, I had never heard of it before, and is the type of made up holiday that I would normally make fun of.
But, I love pizza, so damn it if we were not going to celebrate it the best way I could imagine with a Giordano’s stuffed pizza. This mushroom, spinach and half pepperoni masterpiece was amazing.
New Tools & the Rosemont Theater
So I mentioned earlier that my shoulder was killing me from screwing in some bolts on Saturday. You might be wondering why I was doing that. Well the answer is that my cordless drill died a few months ago, and I’ve been putting off replacing it for far too long.
Feeling sore we decided it was time to replace it and with Blain’s Farm & Fleet having a good sale, I decided to buy an awesome combo Milwaukee Drill combo set. This will be the first time I’ve owned a cordless impact drill to go along with a traditional drill. Cool stuff.
Finally, we headed over to Rosemont Theater for something we have been looking forward to for some time – Tina Fey & Amy Poehler in their “Restless Leg” tour.
We have always loved watching these ladies in SNL, 30 Rock & Parks and Rec and I have to say their show was a solid 10 out of 10. Insanely fun time. After we had dinner at Hugo’s Frog Bar & Fish house.
We decided to start with four fresh oysters (2 West coast, 2 East coast) and then split a filet, mushrooms and a twice baked potato. A fantastic end to the day.
On top of all that we learned that our son and his friends were accepted for an apartment they applied for in Wicker Park. Even better he will only be a short distance from our long time friends Jim & Danielle who recently moved back to Chicago. A win-win for sure.
That’s about all, as you can see the weekend was jam packed and while it left us exhausted it also left a satisfaction that things were accomplished and items checked off the list.